Eça de Queiroz is a leading figure in national and world literature. Jorge Luís Borges included “The Mandarin” in his personal list of literary masterpieces, alongside authors such as Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe or Dostoevsky.
He is most likely the best-known author among the general public and there are few homes that do not have, or have had, one of his works. José Maria de Eça de Queiroz dispensed with Zé Maria when signing works that ranged from short stories, novels, novels, epistolaries and articles in various publications, having himself been a journalist and director of “O Distrito de Évora” and founder of “Revista of Portugal”.
The writing, simultaneously slick and direct, is the maximum exponent of literary realism, far removed from romanticism and, therefore, eventually more accessible to the general public.
Themes such as adultery, sin, morality or lack thereof, permeate part of Queiroz’s work, deeply marked by relentless social criticism and the chronicle of customs of what has always been his country, even when his diplomatic career took him to England, France and Cuba, having he was consul of Portugal in Havana, whose university created a chair dedicated to him.
A man of letters par excellence, Eça leaves a legacy that includes “Os Maias”, “O Crime do Padre Amaro”, “O Conde D’Abranhos”, “A Ilustre Casa de Ramires”, “O Mandarim” or “A Relíquia “, the latter strongly influenced by a trip to the East, which took Eça to Palestine and Egypt, where he witnessed the inauguration of the Suez Canal.
A Portuguese citizen of the world, Eça de Queiroz has around 70 titles translated into more than 20 languages and his work has never lost relevance in the literary universe, which made him a literary classic.
Immortal in his work, the writer, journalist, thinker and diplomat, astute observer of reality, died on the outskirts of Paris in 1900. He was born in Póvoa de Varzim on November 25, 1845. After more or less sterile controversies, he saw his immortality perpetuated in the National Pantheon, 125 years after his last breath.
